Field
The disclosed aspects relate generally to communications between devices and specifically to methods and systems for improving mechanisms for reporting activation in near field communication (NFC) devices.
Background
Advances in technology have resulted in smaller and more powerful personal computing devices. For example, there currently exist a variety of portable personal computing devices, including wireless computing devices, such as portable wireless telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and paging devices that are each small, lightweight, and can be easily carried by users. More specifically, the portable wireless telephones, for example, further include cellular telephones that communicate voice and data packets over wireless networks. Many such cellular telephones are manufactured with ever increasing computing capabilities, and as such, are becoming tantamount to small personal computers and hand-held PDAs. Further, such devices are enabling communications using a variety of frequencies and applicable coverage areas, such as cellular communications, wireless local area network (WLAN) communications, NFC, etc.
A NFC enabled device may initially detect a remote NFC device (e.g., a NFC tag, target device, etc.). Thereafter, a notification may be generated within the NFC enabled device to provide information associated with the remote NFC device. An example notification (e.g., a RF_ACTIVATE_NTF message) is provided with reference to Table 1. Note the tables referred to in Table 1 correspond to tables described in a NFC standard (not included).
TABLE 1Example NFC notificationRF_ACTIVATE_NTFPayload Field(s)LengthValue/DescriptionTarget Handle1 ByteRF Protocol1 ByteSee Table 86.NFC RF1 ByteNFC RF technology and Mode oftechnologythe local device.and ModeSee Table 50.NFC RF0-n Bytes Depends on NFC RF technology andtechnologyMode.SpecificSee Table 51 for NFC-A Poll Mode.ParametersSee Table 52 for NFC-A Listen Mode.See Table 53 for NFC-B Poll Mode.See Table 54 for NFC-B Listen Mode.See Table 55 for NFC-F Poll Mode.See Table 56 for NFC-F Listen Mode.RF Interface Type1 ByteSee Table 87.Activation0-n Bytes Activation Parameters are definedParameterson the RF Interface section identifiedby the RF Interface Type.
As is evident from Table 1, the notification contains information, such as the “NFC RF technology and Mode” and the “NFC RF technology Specific Parameters.” Once sufficient information has been gathered, the notification may be generated and sent along with the information about which NFC RF technology (e.g., NFC-A, NFC-B, NFC-F, etc.) used to gather the information. Currently, there is no means by which to include information in the notification that the bit rate and/or NFC RF technology to be used for data exchange is different from that used in information gathering. A Table 1 based notification may require a device to assume about what happened during activation will remain in place during data exchange. As one example, information gathering may occur using NFC-A at 106 kbit/s, but data exchange may switch to NFC-F at 212 or 424 kbit/s. The notification, as depicted in Table 1 does not provide for a way to report a NFC RF technology change, or the actual bit rates that may be chosen for a subsequent data exchange.
Thus, improved apparatuses and methods providing mechanisms for reporting NFC RF technology usage in activation and data exchange for a NFC device may be desired.